Suction Horse History

As mentioned before, Suction Horse Productions is one of the independent film teams I work with, run by Mr. Josh Self. The first thing we did together was back in July '04 for the Sidewalk Film Festival (and in fact, most of our stuff has been for Scrambles. For more on Sidewalk Film Scrambles, you can go here:http://www.sidewalkfilm.org/scram.htm ). We are given themes and sometimes props to use in the films, and you only have 48 hours to put it all together, starting on a Friday night and finishing Sunday night. Oh, and it has to be 5 minutes long (the first was 6 minutes, but they changed the rules.) It's really fun.
This is a screen shot from our first short (6minutes long), called The Dungeon Master. It is sort of a comedy. It starred Chris Hobbie, with off screen voices by Daphane Voltz (as Chris' mom); as well as three D&D styled figures that speak! Floyd the Barbarian was voiced pathetically by me, Vermillia was voiced by Stephanie Wilhite, and Baldor was voiced to award-winning success by Nathan Voltz.
We were pumped about getting an award for our first film and when the next Scramble came around in November '04, we wanted to assemble the same group. Unfortunately, that was not to be and we had to get some folks we had never worked with before involved. Some worked well, but others did not and the end result suffered from it. It was called Peace Of Me (my title) and was about a guy hunting for a girl he only knew from a photograph. It was 5 minutes long, and was a disaster. I have only ever watched it once since. Josh and I had to really work hard to pull that thing together. Carrie, his wife, was an anchor as well. But when it was all said and done I swore I would never go through something like that again.
In February of '05, in the freezing weather, we were able to assemble much of the original team, plus a few new faces such as Joey McCain and John P Butka (JP) who were instrumental in the success of this project. (Joey, Chris, Nathan and Daphane would go on to put together Hypocrite Films, the other film team with which I have worked). We also had Chris Hobbie's then wife, Shona, as one of the starring characters. This one was called Death Wears A Boa, and of all the films Suction Horse has made (that I have been a part of making) this one is my favorite. I really had a good time. We hit a few bumps along the way but overall it was good. I think we did a really nice editing job, writing job, and acting job. But unfortunately the Scramble judges felt otherwise and we went away with no awards. But no matter. Death Wears A Boa may be odd, subtle, and weird, but I personally enjoy this one.
In the summer of this year, Josh, Carrie and JP got together and made a nice film for the Sidewalk Scramble called The Basement, a sort of psychological thriller/suspense/horror. I was unable to be involved due to my work schedule, and when I saw the final product, I was even more upset that I was not able to come along and help out because I think it is my second favorite of the Suction Horse projects. It, like Death and Peace, was 5 minutes long. Good work on this one.
That brings us up to our most recent project, another odd suspense piece called The Tree On Rod Lane, starring...me. Yes, I really felt strongly about trying my hand at some real acting this time around. Josh was willing and so was JP, who usually was our go-to guy for acting. But JP wanted to write more and that worked out fine with me.
So I took my turn at the acting and while I know I wasn't that good, I don't think I was wretched either. Mostly. JP is certainly the better actor, that is for sure. But it was still really fun and I wasn't as freaked out as I thought I would be. Normally, the idea of being on camera would have made me sick to my stomach. (This almost happened at the screening of the Hypocrite Films movie, The Three R's, in which I was on screen for maybe two minutes, and had no dialogue. Yet at the screening I was so wound up in knots I was almost shaking.) I enjoyed acting, and I would like to give it a go again one day. But I am perfectly happy behind the camera, helping with the writing, or sound, or with editing or any of that "no one can see me" safe stuff. Who knows? Maybe I will act again in the next Scramble? Until then, we have other non-Sidewalk related films to work on, with no time limit, and more than 2 days to finish. So be sure to keep yourself glued to this site (LOL) for updates on those projects. I am pretty confident that our short comedy (which, ironically, we want to be no more than 7 minutes long -- take away our time limitations and we still make short ones!) will be finished first. Then we will be dedicating a lot of time to a documentary that should be about an hour long. What will the topic be? That shall be revealed in due time.